DARIN ALDRIDGE AND BROOKE JUSTICE ALDRIDGE

TRANSCRIPT %u2013 DARIN AND BROOKE ALDRIDGE
[Compiled April 16th, 2009]

Interviewees: DARIN AND BROOKE ALDRIDGE

Interviewers: Brendan Greaves and Tommy Forney

Interview Date: August 31, 2008

Location: Shelby, North Carolina

Length: One hour, seventeen minutes

NOTE: This interview took place before Darin and Brooke were married, so Brooke is referred to throughout with her maiden name, Justice.
BRENDAN GREAVES: Generally, in this format, we just kind of say who is here and where we are, so we%u2019re at Tommy Forney%u2019s house, I%u2019m Brendan Greaves; Tommy is here as well. If you both could just say your names, date of birth and place of birth as a way to start.
DARIN ALDRIDGE: Darin Aldridge--what did you say second, place of birth?
BG: Place of birth and date of birth.
DA: Date of birth was April 27th, 1977, in Morganton, North Carolina.
BROOKE JUSTICE: And I%u2019m Brooke Justice, born in Banner Elk, North Carolina, and my date of birth is November 13th, 1983.
BG: All right--good. So, often a good place to start is as far back as [laughed] you both remember. If you could say a little bit about--each one of you--your families, maybe what your parents did and how they ended up, where you came into the world.
DA: My folks are from actually the same place Brooke%u2019s folks are from--Avery County. My Dad is from Crossnore. My mom is from Elk Park. They--my dad comes from a long line of truckers--workers--he drove trucks and worked for Underwood up there for a while. Then his brother and his dad all were truck drivers. My mom, she went to school there. They both graduated in those towns. Mom went to beautician school over in Elizabethton, and she cut hair as far as her trade. They got married and, of course, truck driving brought them to Cherryville, where Carolina Freight was. That%u2019s where my dad worked and retired, with Carolina and ABF.
Somewhere along 1977, they come up with my idea and I come into the world. So go on and do my musical background or what else did you say there? I%u2019m sorry.
BG: Sure, sure, yeah . . .
DA: %u2026Or do you want her to get caught up with me here?
BG: We can do it that way. Yeah, sure. Why not? Then we%u2019ll be in the same place.
BJ: Well, just tell about our parents like you said?
BG: Yeah, your parents and what they did, where they were from.
BJ: All right. Both my parents are from Avery County. My mom is from a little community called Beech Bottom [laughed], and my father is from a little community called Spear, which is where they both live now. My dad used to work for a company called Feldspar and that%u2019s just kind of like a rock quarry and they did--. It was a water treatment plant--had a little bit of everything there. He worked there for a couple of years, and then my mom--she has always worked for the Avery County school system. She works with disabled children. I%u2019m not really sure how they met; I know it was [laughed]--it was a pretty interesting time. My dad%u2019s trying to chase her; you know he wanted to marry her pretty bad, but--. Anyways, when she said, %u201CI do,%u201D they had me in about 1983 and ever since then, we--. I%u2019ve got two sisters, as well, so I have a good family [laughed].
BG: Darin, do you have brothers and sisters?
DA: I have an older brother. He%u2019s three and a half years older than I am. He was a real good ballplayer. We both grew up in a sports type of family. My dad was a good athlete and my mom. Devon got more of the sports way; I kind of give up on it about my--about the time I got my license I started picking a whole lot more and seeing how much he had to go through with practice and being here and there. I just wanted to play guitars and banjos and stuff, and got the fever for that, so I gave up all the baseball and basketball. I did play golf through high school, but that was the only sports I did through there. Soon as I started playing guitar and mandolin, I pretty much did that from then on out. Yeah, Devon, he was there tonight--he was--he%u2019s been a good brother and friend through the years.
BG: Did he have a red shirt on?
DA: Mmm, I think so--he looks a lot like me.
BG: He looks a lot like you, yeah. I saw him and thought that must be family.
DA: Yeah.
BG: So, how did you first get interested in music, Darin? You mentioned your grandfather today at the concert.
DA: Yeah, my family on my mother%u2019s side has always been musical. You mentioned, I think, the Wisemans earlier, over there eating a little bit. My grandpa kind of played a lot with them and I think my second or third cousin to mine on my grandpa%u2019s side--I think his nephew or brother%u2019s sons got Scotty%u2019s old banjo--the Wiseman banjo there, in my family somewhere. My grandpa--he played guitar and a little bit of drop-thumb banjo and sung real high lead, kind of like Monroe did. Him and his brothers and all played, and that%u2019s how my mom and her brother, R.L. Jones--they had a group through high school and growing up--just old-time church singing all the time and playing was in their background. My uncle%u2019s got a professional Southern gospel group called The Melody Trio. So it%u2019s always been in the family, and I was around that growing up quite a bit. We%u2019d have different jam sessions at the house. My dad was learning to play bass some, and he would play and we had a lot of friends around the community--old Fred Isenhour, you might know who he is. Tommy played pedal steel a lot and Maurice Dellinger and Jack Bingham and a lot of the crowd from the bomb shelter and different folks that played country--country kind of bluegrass stuff. At that time, I guess that%u2019s when Skaggs was kind of hitting the eighties country-bluegrass crossover thing, which everybody that played and had anything to do with bluegrass--all of a sudden, they could do a little country stuff--mix, you know, %u2018cause that was the thing. They always played in the basement down there where we lived, so it was a big time for all the musicians and friends to come hang out, and I was six, seven years old, running around and all that stuff. We%u2019d gather and, %u201CHere%u2019s little Darin, come sing %u201CYou Are My Sunshine,%u201D and I just loved that type of thing so the more I grew and wanted to play--. I had felt a longing for that after I learned to play guitar; it kind of come easy to me. I actually wanted to change chords faster %u2018cause I wanted to sing and accompany myself. So I started doing that and gradually got a little bit better and better and drew from several different backgrounds, from the Beach Boys to Elvis, I guess. Richie Valens--the La Bamba movie had a big influence on me wanting to play and sing. I was always a Beach Boys fan for the high harmonies and stuff, so I started really digging that, learning stuff. Then I see Vince Gill on the Opry one night and thought he was just an amazing talent, that most people I%u2019d noticed early on couldn%u2019t really play and sing. It was on the big Nashville scene--most of them had a background, or cowboy hat on to get out there and look good and sell records, but Vince was the real thing. He could play it and write songs, and I always wanted to try to imitate that and said that%u2019s what I wanted to be. So about sixteen--fifteen, sixteen years old, I started playing bluegrass and picked up a banjo that a real good family friend of mine, Wayne Caldwell, had got me, which was an old five-string banjo. He%u2019d been taking for a month or two--banjo, somewhere up near Sim%u2019s Barbecue, up near Dudley Shoals where he was from. He come to the house and said, %u201CI got this banjo. I want you to learn how to pick it. You%u2019ve played guitar for a while but you need to get this out.%u201D So he showed me his lessons that he had been learning in those two months. In about ten minutes, I could play everything that he had. It really made him mad. %u201CI%u2019ve been taking for two months, and here you%u2019ve learned everything I know in ten minutes,%u201D and took off with it. So, that kind of got me going on playing the banjo. From there, I had friends in school that went to church at Gospel Way Baptist there in Cherryville and they said, %u201CWe hear you%u2019re playing banjo.%u201D They was good Christian guys and said, %u201CWe want you to come to the church and play with us.%u201D I said, %u201CAll right.%u201D At this time, I%u2019ve already played guitar a good bit, and I said I%u2019ve been learning, so it will be a good experience, and that%u2019s how we come up with The Straight and Narrow Band that played here in Leatherwood%u2019s a lot. I guess you was wanting me to keep going through the%u2026
BG: %u2026Yeah, sure%u2026
DA: %u2026down through the years if you want me to here. So, I started doing that, so I played banjo, Harold Simpson played bass. Pete Kraft was playing--actually, Pete started playing bass. Harold played mandolin. Ronnie Sain played guitar, and we played a lot of just gospel around the churches, little local things. Leatherwood%u2019s got started here in town. I%u2019m sure you probably talked to that and know about that kind of deal. We was one of the first four bands to play there. That was a good experience, got me learning to play banjo a good bit. Playing mandolin kind of come by accident, kind of like Monroe did. Harold had it in his hand one night, and I really wanted to do a quartet tune, kind of like we did tonight--just guitar and mandolin. I said, %u201CLet%u2019s learn this song.%u201D I think it was %u201CGet On Your Knees and Pray.%u201D I told Harold, %u201CLet%u2019s learn that kickoff. I%u2019ll play guitar and we%u2019ll sing it.%u201D He said, %u201CI can%u2019t play that.%u201D I said, %u201CI%u2019ll figure it out for you. You give me that mandolin.%u201D So he handed it over and in two or three minutes, I figured out the kickoff for it. I%u2019d never picked up a mandolin before. I gave it back to him and said, %u201CPlay it like this.%u201D He said, %u201CNo, man, you play it. You can do it.%u201D So, from there I kind of pushed on playing the mandolin and it probably come easier than anything I%u2019d picked up and played. After that, I just got to meet more people. I got more into the Shelby community here, playing with Dr. Bobby and Brother Dean Jenks and several of them. I think that they was called %u201CRiver Bend%u201D at that time. They changed names quite a few times, didn%u2019t they, Tommy? [laughed] Get a new lead singer; they%u2019d change the name, but--. I started picking with them a lot. Actually, we hired another banjo player named John McCulloch at the time to play with Straight and Narrow. He kind of played several months and then fizzled out, and we kind of stole Dean from Bobby and them%u2019s group to play a lot of gigs with us, and did that as well, so they put me on mandolin more of the time. And then this kind of faded on out here and there--I%u2019d sit in and play with Bobby and them on quite a few shows and just kind of got to be known, I guess, as a good instrumentalist to fill in with a lot of folks. I played with Vern Berry%u2019s band a lot at that time. I was seventeen--I was eighteen years old. I just had graduated. I met Eddie down at picking at Jack Bingham%u2019s place, just up here in Cherryville at the bomb shelter. Eddie was a real good player. I could tell he was a professional, had a lot of knowledge on songs. He was playing with an older gentleman at the time by the name of Harold Murphy. Harold would come into the jam down there; he%u2019d always encourage me to play, and Harold was a big--probably one of the better lead singers around the area, kind of like Charlie was. He played with the Blue River Boys. I%u2019m sure Tommy can tell you a lot of information. You knew Harold, didn%u2019t you? You didn%u2019t know Harold Murphy much?
TOMMY FORNEY: No, I know the name.
DA: Yeah.
TF: By the way, you%u2019re talking about Eddie Biggerstaff?
DA: Yeah%u2026
TF: %u2026Plays with you now.
DA: Yeah. I%u2019d met him and he was playing with Harold, so that kind of--playing at Jack%u2019s down there on Wednesdays give me a broad--it was like a bluegrass 101. Every Wednesday night, I%u2019d go down there and study and play, plus we had our band. It just exposed me to a lot of good players, good songs and different varieties. A couple of the Acoustic Syndicate boys come down there and would jam. That%u2019s kind of how I met them. Doug Rogers would always be down there. But, back to the Eddie story--Eddie asked me to play with another bunch of guys that was getting back together. Mike Lynch is from Shelby here and was playing with Carolina Crossfire band. Roger Holland played banjo. Mike and Eddie--and they joined up and asked me to play with them, so that kind of fed me out of Straight and Narrow. It was kind of slowing down; I was wanting to do better--a little bit bigger things and being with more talented players at the time, so I did that. I joined up with Eddie and them, and that was probably a really good contemporary band to come out of the area, wouldn%u2019t you say?
TF: Um-hmm.
DA: For bluegrass--real hard, traditional, contemporary stuff--very good.
BG: Did the band have a name?
DA: Carolina Crossfire was the name.
BG: Oh, that was--.
DA: I played with them probably a year to a year and a half, and we did a lot of good stuff. We never did record anything, but just with Mike--he worked different hours than Eddie worked so it was hard to kind of keep going--more stuff, and I was young and driving hard as I could go to the next gig. Whatever come along that was better that%u2019s where I was going to play, you know, at that age. Doug and Steve McMurry and them boys asked me if I would join in, and I filled in a few dates with the Syndicate. They kind of drug and took me from there into their band. They was getting a lot better and playing a lot more dates. Steve was playing mandolin and crossing over and playing guitar, and he wanted to do more guitar. They was wanting to put Fitz on a percussion thing, so they hired me to play mandolin, and I stayed with them about a year and a half. About a year and a half, everybody got tired of me, I guess [laughter]. I did that for a while and that was--Acoustic Syndicate was a very good experience; everything just kept building to my knowledge on playing. You know, early on, starting on, I got a little bit better, a little bit more into the traditional stuff, the gospel thing. I got with the Crossfire; that was real contemporary edged bluegrass. With the Syndicate, it opened up a lot more venues to jazz, to reggae type stuff. They had a lot of fusion--just everything, plus me just being green--nineteen years old. I%u2019d never really traveled that much. That was the first band that I probably went out of--up North or Georgia, just to wherever, playing. We played all over the Southeast--from bars to--they took me in a lot of places I%u2019d never been before. It was a good experience, though, and very good, talented musicians, as y%u2019all both know that band. I cherish the time I got to be with them and learn a lot of that. The reason I probably quit that was just a money thing. They was playing on up North--a big tour to Boston to New York to Maine at that time, and I just didn%u2019t want to be gone that much, and I had another call from Tweetsie Railroad--offered me there in Blowing Rock to come and play six days a week. They%u2019d give me a flat rate per day if I%u2019d come entertain, so I couldn%u2019t do both, and I was really wanting to move to the mountains at that time. I%u2019d still live back and forth when I was there, but I played electric guitar, to guitar, banjo, mandolin. I played electric bass some at country things, a little bit of fiddle and some lead in a Texas type of swing band--from Western swing stuff to--we did bluegrass to a little bit of old-time stuff when the people would come in at that day. So, that was six days a week that I got paid to play every day, so that was real good. I was up there at the time with Alan Johnson, Charlie Burleson, and Jason Burleson. Jason plays with Blue Highway. Charlie is his brother--was a great instrumental player that%u2019s never really left Avery County. But, Big Al%u2019s played all over. You know who Alan is, don%u2019t you? Big, tall fiddle player--he played with Doyle Lawson; he%u2019s played with Lorrie Morgan, Doug Stone, Blue Ridge%u2026
TF: Alan?
DA: Yeah, Big Al Johnson--played fiddle.
TF: Oh, yeah.
DA: He was there. So, we had a good band there at Tweetsie at the time. You want me to keep going here, or you got any questions?
BG: [Laughed] No, you can keep going%u2026
DA: Am I talking too much?
BG: This is very good%u2026
DA: You got me on a roll now. This is stuff she don%u2019t even know.
BG: She%u2019s over there smiling, so she must be enjoying it [laughed].
DA: Let me think here. Where was I? That%u2019s %u201999, I believe is when this was. I got a call from Greg Corbett that I%u2019d met in Nashville, probably two years before I was out there. I think we went out there with Carolina Crossfire. I know me and Eddie had played at this time. It might have been Jaret Carter, Dale Myers, and Roger. It was some configuration of Crossfire--went out and played the SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) band competition, which I think we finished seventh or eighth in national fiddler%u2019s convention. I%u2019d met Corbett out there--they was playing with the Country Gentlemen and I%u2019d talked to him, and I think he saw us play and he got a business card from me. He said he might holler at us sometime, but at the time, they was going through a lot of mandolin players and tenor singers. Matthew Allred was playing before me, and something had come up with his family or--he married Jesse McReynolds%u2019 daughter, so he was going to go play bass with Jim and Jesse, so he left Charlie (Charlie Waller of the Country Gentlemen). Greg called me--it was New Year%u2019s Eve and the day before they was playing at ( ) on New Year%u2019s Eve and he asked me, %u201CAre you interested in playing with the Country Gentlemen?%u201D I said, %u201CSure am. What y%u2019all want me to do? Where you want me to be?%u201D He said, %u201CWell, I want you to come down to Troy tomorrow night if you want to try out. Matthew%u2019s doing his last show. So I had that evening to cram and learn the stuff. I had several of the Gentlemen records, but not a lot of their new stuff.
I think we was in Denver doing a gig that day when he called--when I called him back--so the time I got home I had that evening and the next day and I remember playing a--. I had my mom drive me down there, and I had a practice tape and I played mandolin all the way down there to Troy, sitting in the front seat, learning that stuff. I watched the show--we got down there and played and Charlie got us on the bus and asked me about five songs we went over, maybe Redwood Hills, Matterhorn, Waltz of the Angels, which I didn%u2019t know. He said, %u201CWell, we really like to do this song about every set.%u201D I%u2019d heard them do it in there. It%u2019s a real high lead thing. So they kind of sung to me how it goes--it%u2019s a cappella, so he seen I could hit that note, you know, singing tenor. Then he said, %u201CYeah, you%u2019re a real good mandolin player. You play Rawhide?%u201D I said, %u201CYeah, I play Rawhide.%u201D We burnt that one up pretty good and Charlie, he hired me right there on the spot. He said, %u201CIf you want to go to work, well, I think our next gig%u2019s actually not %u2018til the end of January,%u201D or something. He said, %u201CWe%u2019d love for you to come play with us.%u201D That was a big honor; I got to play with Charlie a lot of good places. I worked with him for almost seven years and, of course, he passed away in late %u201904, August. I recorded three projects with him. I was nominated for Mandolin Player of the Year four times during that genre. We won Album of the Year in %u201904--SPBGMA. Nominated IBMA Gospel Recording of the Year, I think, in %u201901. We played the Presidential inauguration in %u201904. Is that when it was? Yeah, in %u201904, when Bush--.
TF: And I%u2019m not sure we said for the tape, but that%u2019s Charlie Waller.
DA: Yeah, Charlie Waller, the Country Gentlemen.
TF: Charlie works with--just Charlie with the Country Gentlemen?
DA: Yeah.
TF: Just in case.
DA: I think in--I forget what year they actually switched over to Charlie%u2019s front name, probably in the eighties. At first, it was John Duffey, Charlie Waller and the Country Gentlemen. Did you know that?
TF: Huh-uh.
DA: Yeah, John kind of--on some of those records--. I think John was more of the businessman of it anyway, but that%u2019s getting into their history and not mine, but--. Yeah, Charlie had a good band, a good following. On singing trios, Charlie was a strong vocalist--had a lot of good songs. We had different arrangements of parts, switching up and down, just--. He taught me a lot on rhythm guitar for a band and how dynamic you can be playing that. Up and down for the vocals, how hard you want to play rhythm during somebody else%u2019s break--. It exposed us to a lot of different things: we were on a lot of TV show tapings, played festivals all across the country and Canada, everywhere. I forget how many dates we worked a year--I think about a hundred and eighty to two hundred a year sometimes. But I met a lot of good people that helped us along through the years. When Charlie passed away, I played with Randy, his son about eight months, I think, after he died. We carried on and filled out some of the contracts that we had already. That did pretty well, but Randy kind of wanted to do his own thing, and we didn%u2019t work for him. You know, it was that kind of thing. He wanted to try to rule me and Greg out a little bit, because he wanted it to be his thing, and a together sense. Well, that%u2019s fine--it%u2019s his son. He wanted to get some guys that he could pay, like Charlie was doing and him take most of the money [laughed], I think. Everything comes down to money at the end. Me and Greg had a lot of things in mind, though. Billy was playing bass with us at the time, Billy Gee, Greg Corbett and myself. In %u201904, I also got the privilege of putting out a solo project with Pinecastle Records. During that time I was real good friends with Greg Luck, and, of course, Jerry Carter and myself had played in a lot of trios, and he%u2019d played together with me for a long time there. During that we kind of formed the Circuit Riders. It was the first time we all played on my--I call it a day record. We kind of did some odd gigs here and on while we was playing with Randy and every time we%u2019d get together we%u2019d say, %u201CMan, we really need to do this. We need to quit working for everybody and work for ourselves.%u201D Luck was playing with IIIrd Tyme Out at the time and he was ready to come off the road with them because they was two hundred-and-some dates a year also band. He was just a sideman, just playing the fiddle for them. He really wanted to play guitar and sing some lead and do stuff, so we just decided there, after Charlie passed away and we was getting tired of doing the Randy thing, we%u2019d just form the Circuit Riders then. I called up Tom Riggs and told him we was putting this band together, and he offered us a recording contract, pretty much over the phone. We went to working on that--it took us a long while to put the record out, but we took our time. We didn%u2019t have anybody really telling us what to do, which before, it was always a pressure situation--we need to get this out, we need to do this. These songs have to be sung. It was the first time we all got to actually do whatever we wanted to on the record and not have any overseers. We all produced it ourselves. That band%u2019s still going today; it%u2019s doing well. We%u2019ve put out this Let the Ride Begin album. Good bunch of guys--real talented--. We%u2019ve written a lot of songs. Greg%u2019s a good songwriter. Somewhere along that time, after about a year and a half, I guess that was, I met Miss Brooke here, in church up in--near where she lives. What%u2019s the name of that church?
BJ: Powdermill.
DA: Powdermill Baptist. A friend of mine asked me to come up and pick a little bit, so I did that. I seen Miss Brooke here, and I said that%u2019s who I need to be with, and I started chasing her hard for a long time before she finally give in. I thought she%u2019s a really good singer, and I felt the Lord was leading me in that direction. I needed to play a lot more gospel music than I had been playing, and that%u2019s kind of what%u2019s led us today. Everything just kind of fell together since we started doing our thing. She was playing with a group called Pure Heart at that time. I really felt like she was above and beyond anybody in the band, and they was holding her back--not the sense of saying the same thing with me when I was younger. I was always the better one than everybody that was around, so I felt like I needed to get to where I wasn%u2019t so I could learn more. You know, if you%u2019re around better players or singers, you%u2019ll get better if you%u2019ve got the drive to. I seen good potential in her in a partner. We started dating and playing, and we wanted to do it on our own, and she quit the other guys. We started playing our stuff together and kind of come in with Chris Bryant there, that had played and filled in for Greg a lot with the Country Gentlemen. We asked him if he wanted to play, and went by Perry%u2019s house one day and talked to him about it, and he felt led to and so did Mr. Biggerstaff. So me and Eddie%u2019s back to picking again. We put out this record and I think it%u2019s one of the best ones I%u2019ve ever been a part of. Any questions?
BG: That was--first of all, that was amazing [everyone laughed]--that you%u2019re able to recount you history and your career in that linear a fashion. Not everyone can do that, so--.
DA: I probably left a lot of stuff out, but I was just trying to give you a time line there, going down through, but...
BG: %u2026No, that%u2019s a great%u2026
DA: %u2026it%u2019s been real good; the Lord%u2019s blessed me all my life, and then with good friends and family, and I%u2019m sure I didn%u2019t mention a lot of different people that I%u2019ve picked with that was--made a good influence on me through the years. I%u2019m glad to be a part of all of what I%u2019ve picked with. Even with Randy and his bunch--Randy%u2019s a real good singer, but he wanted to do things his way and we wanted to do it ours, and it was different, not having Charlie in there. He wanted a lot of variety--different songs, and he had his own manager that was pushing him to do his stuff. We held on there for a while, and you know without Charlie that was the last Country Gentlemen as far as I%u2019m concerned--when we was there. Randy%u2019s just got the Randy Waller Band; he%u2019s going strong with that, but I was real proud to be the last mandolin player for the %u2018Gents.
BG: I do have a couple of follow-up questions. Maybe we can get at some of those details you might have forgotten. I%u2019m curious about you feeling the calling to play more gospel music and that kind of coinciding with meeting Brooke. I wonder if Brooke--if you could tell us a little bit about your career, your life of music?
BJ: Well, it%u2019s not quite detailed as his, but%u2026
BG: %u2026That%u2019s OK.
BJ: Mine%u2019s just little, compared to his.
BG: It%u2019s a hard act to follow.
BJ: Yeah, which I never really even played in a band until about five years ago. I grew up singing in church with my sisters and, actually, they sang more than I did. I wasn%u2019t really shy, but I just wouldn%u2019t get up in front of people a lot. Then they kind of quit and I started singing little talent shows in schools and stuff. My parents always put me in a lot of singing competitions, but I always used accompaniment tracks or did karaoke things, you know. Then when I was about fifteen or sixteen, I realized that I really did want to pursue my singing career more, with something that really made me happy and that I%u2019d enjoy doing in my spare time. I played a lot of sports, as well, but music just seemed to be my calling. Then a man at my church suggested that I start singing bluegrass stuff, and I was like, %u201CI don%u2019t like bluegrass.%u201D You know, I was a teenager; I didn%u2019t like to hear all that kind of instrumentation. I didn%u2019t like the banjo and stuff. My grandpa had let me listen to the old Bill Monroe stuff when I was little and I was like, %u201CTurn that off.%u201D I didn%u2019t want to hear that stuff, but as I got older, about eighteen, and the man from church suggested that I start singing it--he made me a Rhonda Vincent CD. I had always followed the Isaacs %u2018cause I really liked their family, and Sonya; I love her voice--what she does. Then the man at my church and some other guys got together, and they asked me if I%u2019d be a part of their group and sing bluegrass gospel with them. So I started out doing that, and we sang at Tweetsie a lot, which is kind of funny that he played there. We would do a couple of shows a week; we didn%u2019t play every day. So that kind of got me started in the bluegrass music, and we%u2019d do a little bit of bluegrass and gospel as well. Then we started playing a lot of churches around Tennessee and Virginia, and a lot of North Carolina churches too. Then Darin came in and played with us that one time, and then him and I, like he said, we just kind of--we wanted to go further with it %u2018cause those guys were just wanting to do local things. We wanted to pursue more things outside of just North Carolina and Tennessee and Virginia. We wanted to go wherever it would take us, so that%u2019s kind of how my music background started. It%u2019s not, like I said, as detailed as his, but it%u2019s a good start and I love doing it.
BG: Good, good. Darin, your career has been pretty eclectic, I would say, in terms of the kinds of groups you played with and the varieties of music that you played, even within the broad roots or bluegrass category of a lot of places. I wonder, as a younger man from this region of the world that is so famous for its bluegrass history, what kind of relationship you have with that music tradition, and how do you feel about the departures you%u2019ve taken with Acoustic Syndicate, for instance, and the difference between interpreting songs and writing songs? You know, that tension between tradition and newness, and innovation that is, I think, kind of part of the bluegrass world.
DA: Yeah, I always keep in mind writing. Of course, I%u2019ve studied a lot of good writers down through the years, and it%u2019s always good to try to write stuff new that%u2019s--people%u2019s not really took the twist on--to keep things fresh, or the lyric coming around but staying in that roots behind that. It%u2019s got to be a little bit traditional, especially if we%u2019re doing bluegrass. It%u2019s kind of like when Earl and them guys was playing with Monroe and Flatt. They was really breaking new ground right there, that a lot of people thought they was freaks doing that. That%u2019s never been done before, the way they was playing. Like people might hear when I was playing with the Syndicate, for instance, since you mentioned that. You know, we really took bluegrass to a lot of people in this area, or they did; I was just a part of it. It turned a lot of heads, didn%u2019t it, Tommy? I mean people really get weirded out on some of that stuff that was real traditional because we played to both crowds. It was spacey, but if you think about it, in the late forties when Scruggs come in there, and they was mashing that Ryman crowd to the wall. I mean, people had never really heard that stuff before. And I felt like it was doing the same type of thing. I want to keep on playing and doing as much--the older I get, the more old-time stuff I want to learn to play, like they was talking about. Clawhammer banjo, I think, is a thing that%u2019s dying out that I%u2019d really love to learn how to study more of that and--either the Merle Travis style of guitar playing--is another genre I%u2019ve never really got an opportunity to play. I%u2019m kind of hitting on that some now, too. I think that%u2019s something that we%u2019re going to have to pass on that my grandpa, and folks and my mom--you know she played a lot of the old songs with him that I need to sit down and record and learn to have for later on. I just feel good about learning as much of that as I can, and put it into music that I may write for the future, and do recordings with. I%u2019ve always opened up to try to play with so many different folks--to keep an open mind on everything. Reggie Harris and his brother--I always feel probably--just like a refreshed feeling in my musical sense of getting to play with them guys because they%u2019re so broad and wide from blues. I feel like I get a music lesson every time I get to pick with them, %u2018cause Reggie%u2019s so versatile of a player. You know, he could go from Dire Straits to the Grateful Dead to Doc (Watson) in three songs. It%u2019s really a good thing to have that and have friends that play that way that I can sit in and learn from. I hope that answers your question.
BG: Yeah, definitely.
DA: [Laughed] BG: That was a good answer. On a related note, you know this is a question that I haven%u2019t asked a lot of people on this project because I%u2019ve been interviewing a lot of older folks. When you were coming up, were you learning songs and styles mostly from elders, from friends, or were you also looking to records, to recorded material, and to even the internet and things like that, when that became part of your life?
DA: Well, both, probably early on, as I mentioned, I feel blessed to have the friends in the jam that I went through with Jack Bingham%u2019s place down there--the bomb shelter. At that time, so many folks was coming in and out to come over and hang out and play. I was learning--I%u2019d go down there sometimes, and I%u2019d take all three with me. You know, I%u2019d take a mandolin, a guitar and a banjo, and I%u2019d play thirty minutes; I%u2019d pick up something else and try to play it. A lot of times, I had such a good ear, whether I knew the song or not, I could catch on and jump in there and play. I believe I just more put it in my head--captured a lot of that--I%u2019d always really pay attention to the lyrics and the harmonies of singing. Between probably seventeen to twenty-two, twenty-three I was a sponge. I soaked up so much stuff and practiced back then, which I don%u2019t have the time to do as much any more. We%u2019re gigging so much or playing; if there%u2019s something else playing, I don%u2019t play. I teach, also. I have about fifty-some students a week, Monday through Thursday. And then, as much as we met and doing and teaching and playing, I really don%u2019t have a lot of time unless I force myself during a record to actually practice anything any more, which is sad [laughed]. I%u2019d love to, but during that seventeen to twenty-two age, I jammed all the time. I hadn%u2019t really had a steady girlfriend at the time. Of course, I%u2019m thirty-one now, and I didn%u2019t really get serious with anybody until I met Brooke. I had other flings off and on, but most of the time they was from out-of-state; I kind of did that for a purpose. I%u2019d just see them every now and then and that was fine. But, picking, I would get CD%u2019s, DVD%u2019s--Dr. Bobby made me a lot of stuff early on--recordings that he had off of old records or CD%u2019s and let me borrow. I%u2019d sit and study, and pick for hours, man, of a night, late night. I started doing some sessions for Sun Sound and Rushing Winds, down around Dallas, and I recorded a Christmas project over at Arthur Smith%u2019s old studio in Charlotte. To practice for all that stuff when I was session playing, I bought me a four-track. I%u2019d sit with whatever I could with a click-track, and I thought that was the coolest thing, to have that four-track. I could play myself playing guitar, tape the next track playing mandolin, and banjo and just--. I had my own band; I didn%u2019t need nobody else. I would work on that stuff and get lost in it all night long. It would be three or four o%u2019clock before I%u2019d even turn around and look at the time, it would get so gone. Yeah, I used to study hard.
BG: Brooke, can you tell us a little bit about your courtship with this guy [laughed]?
BJ: Well%u2026
BG: %u2026If you don%u2019t mind, I%u2019m curious to hear that story.
BJ: Well, it%u2019s been a long one [laughed]. Like I said, we met in church one Sunday morning when he came to play with a group that I was playing with at the time that we were called Pure Heart. I thought we were all sitting on one side together, but it ended up me and him were just on one side%u2026
DA: %u2026Hey!... BJ: %u2026and the preacher went to pray, and%u2026
BG: %u2026I see [laughed]%u2026
BJ: %u2026he made everybody hold hands, so we had to hold hands. And then after that we played at a%u2026
DA: %u2026I was smooth%u2026
BJ: [laughed]%u2026we played at a place up in Tennessee, and he acted like he wasn%u2019t going to go unless I invited him, so I had to kind of, you know, pay him to go, in a sense.
DA: Hey!
BJ: [laughed] No, he wanted to go; he just wanted me to ask him because he liked me. So we went up there and played, and after he left that night, he said he would like to call me. I had just kind of come out of a relationship, so I wasn%u2019t real sure about it. I didn%u2019t really know if I wanted to jump back into something serious or not. I wouldn%u2019t date him for the longest time, as far as serious goes. We stayed in touch and talked and we dated a lot, but we didn%u2019t really get into anything serious until about a year after that. Actually, the funny thing is all his family lives up from where I%u2019m from and they had told me years--previous years, %u201COh, you need to meet Darin; he%u2019s such a great musician and you guys would have so much in common.%u201D I was just like, %u201CYeah, yeah, whatever.%u201D We actually e-mailed a few times, but it never took off into anything. Then we finally went in church; like I said, it took about a year, and then we finally got serious.
DA: She finally give in.
BJ: [Laughed] Then he asked me to marry him in February and here we are, almost December, and we%u2019re getting ready to get married, planning our wedding, so that%u2019s kind of how it evolved, yeah.
BG: Is that accurate, Darin?
DA: That%u2019s accurate, yeah.
BG: [Laughed] Sometimes the stories are different from one side, so%u2026
DA: Yeah, that%u2019s good. Yeah, it%u2019s been good. You know, having the Lord involved was probably the biggest reason, besides us, I imagine. Him helping encourage us along, I feel like that%u2019s who I need to be with.
BG: On the subject of faith, and this is something that either one of you, or both of you can answer. Having played both sacred music and secular music, is there a different way you go about that, or is there an adjustment or is it all the same to you, between playing gospel music or straight bluegrass?
DA: Yeah, it%u2019s--you know, in church, playing gospel music is probably one of the best feelings that I%u2019ve had playing, especially if you see how much it touches others in the congregation. You see somebody get saved or you%u2019re in a real good, lively church where everybody in there wants to be there, and is either shouting or testifying. Being in a service like that in the old-time mountain way, which we play a lot of those churches up in the mountains where we%u2019re from. I think that%u2019s some of the greatest--and it will move--see stuff really move--. A privilege I%u2019ve got also is to see how it%u2019s really moving for some of the band members, for Eddie, Chris, and Perry, how much it%u2019s changed them, and I know it%u2019s changed me, playing as well. How about you?
BJ: I felt the same way. I mean, I enjoy going to--we%u2019re getting more into festivals and playing that type of thing. You know, not just churches now. I enjoy going to those things, too, because I think with us singing our gospel music, we can reach that crowd out there, too, as far as the faith thing goes. But yeah, in church it%u2019s just--. I don%u2019t know if just that presence of God in the sanctuary or something. It%u2019s just--just to see somebody who might be having a terrible week or maybe they%u2019ve gone through something with their family or they%u2019re going through something personal, and then, them come to church to hear a singing. And not necessarily that we want to reach them ourselves; we want them to know that God is out there, and he does care about them.
That%u2019s what we want them to hear through our songs and through our music. That%u2019s the difference for me there, you know?
DA: Back to the Charlie days, me and Greg (Corbett) was always pretty close. Charlie, he dealt with a lot of different kind of inner demons; Charlie was an alcoholic. I seen the Lord move with him a bunch, too, on their own stuff. He had a lot of trials; Charlie did with his drinking. I got to travel with an alcoholic for almost seven years on a bus, which was pretty tough at times. I%u2019ve been from falling out, and him cussing every one of us, to us on his bedside, praying for him. That%u2019s something that I%u2019ll always cherish, too, %u2018cause he had several strokes and about checked out several times. I feel like me and Greg was as close to him as anybody, and that friendship and through faith--I got to be with that--was greater than any music we probably sang.
BG: Do you have some questions, Tommy?
TF: You%u2019ve done a great job. Just kind of wanted to ask--you mentioned the older styles and you grew up with a lot of music in your family--your grandfather was a singer and musician, as well?
DA: Yeah.
TF: Were there--did you have direct experience with some of the old-time tunes and old-time styles of playing that, kind of, as you said, kind of died out in some ways?
DA: I%u2019ve got a few older tapes. He did a lot of radio shows at the time, and my mamma could probably tell you better; I%u2019m not sure exactly which one. I know he did Bristol and Charlotte a few times, him and his brothers. I don%u2019t know exactly the programs%u2019 names. They was just more of the--at that time they--wasn%u2019t as many professional bands, were there? It was just hard, you know. The Carter Family was kind of founded in that way, too; they just got a little bit more exposure, but later on, wasn%u2019t it? They didn%u2019t have any recording facilities. It was all jams, so a lot of that was just either passed on and--. Him living in the mountains and us living down here, I never was that close to him. The year before he passed away, he did come stay with us for several months. I was picking with Harold in the Straight and Narrow Band; I was just getting into playing and got to actually play with him several times there, and sing songs. %u201CIn the Pines%u201D was a big thing that he always would sing. %u201CPrecious Memories.%u201D My grandpa--he couldn%u2019t read or write, really, so all the songs he ever learned was by memory or make-up, or just listen to different ones on the radio. Whether they was right or wrong, how he could remember some of the songs he knew, it was real cool. A lot of them I%u2019d got from him--%u201CDrifting Too Far From the Shore,%u201D you know. I%u2019m trying to think of the other ones--%u201CCareless Love.%u201D He did that one a lot.
TF: Anything that you don%u2019t hear anywhere else, maybe that--?
DA: Not particularly, no--that I actually know of myself, but my mom--she played piano and guitar with him a lot, and I%u2019m sure she still knows quite a bit of them songs. At that time when he stayed with us, I%u2019ve got some recordings of VCR tapes of us playing when I was young, so that was good. He didn%u2019t have Alzheimer%u2019s or anything, but you know that old, not being able to play in a long time, I%u2019m sure some of the stuff didn%u2019t come as natural to him %u2018cause he didn%u2019t sing quite as much, the older that he got. He didn%u2019t have the opportunity, and his brothers had done passed on, so just by church is the only thing he%u2019d played.
TF: Did he play instruments, too?
DA: Yeah, he played guitar and a little bit of banjo and a little fiddle--just mostly guitar for him.
TF: Anybody else around here when you were coming up and jamming with people that maybe sort of obscure that were players that you--you remember playing with some of the old timers? Of course, you played with Horace Scruggs a good bit with Bobby%u2019s group.
DA: Yeah, with Bobby%u2019s band it was always good to pick with Horace. Me and Horace had a good, close bond. I%u2019d always try to remember to play a lot of the old songs when I was around him. He liked for you to do %u201CSome Old Day,%u201D and I think Flatt and them did that. Actually, I sung that at hospice when Horace was over there. I%u2019d go over and sit with him and he%u2019d always want me to do that one. Horace was a good guy--a good player.
TF: And Earl? Do you--?
DA: The first time I met Earl was at Horace%u2019s house. He%u2019d come over there to jam, and I took my banjo over there. I had a Scruggs--I%u2019ve got an %u201986 banjo and Earl signed it for me. I got to jam and play a lot of stuff there, but probably the more precious time--I picked with him about four or five times, but me and Bobby went to Nashville--Dr. Bobby--somewhere along %u201998, maybe %u201997, for a big mandolin workshop camp. We called Earl, and got to go to his house out there in Nashville, close to Hendersonville, and eat with him and his wife. Just the three of us sat down in this pretty big living room, sat, and played, and I sang a lot of them songs. I remember sitting--singing %u201CDrifting Too Far From the Shore%u201D for him. He asked me if I could sing that, and he got to crying. He got tore up on that and remembering how they used to do it, and me singing that--it about had us all squawling in there. That was pretty killer. I told him that we%u2019d done %u201CHe Said If I%u201D (%u201CIf I Be Lifted Up%u201D) and some of those back then. He was telling me stories of them playing so much tunes, when they%u2019d play so much, some of the songs that they did quartets, they would instrumentally play them just to have something for a change and to do different on some nights. He was telling me a lot about that and traveling. It was a pretty cool experience to be able to know Earl like that.
TF: Did you, in speaking of--I know Dr. Bobby Jones knew John Hartford, as well. Did you ever meet John?
DA: I never was around John. He was probably one of the greatest writers around, but I didn%u2019t get to pick with him none.
BG: Before I start this question, I should say, feel free to cut us off. I know you want to go over to%u2026
DA: No, that%u2019s fine with me--we%u2019re good.
BG: If you get bored or tired, just say the word.
DA: This is helping me remember a lot of stuff.
BG: This question is a little bit different, but you mentioned the Beach Boys being an influence early on, and I was interested in that. You also mentioned the Grateful Dead at some point in there, and I%u2019m wondering what non-bluegrass musicians or folks we wouldn%u2019t think of as traditional bluegrass did you and do you admire outside that world?
DA: Of course, when I was young, the Beach Boys--something about their sound and singing I always enjoyed. I would put myself more into the singing category in what I studied and tried to be more than an instrumental player, but it didn%u2019t work out that way. God didn%u2019t give me the voice that Brooke%u2019s got, but--. I like them a lot, and like I said, Elvis--my dad was a big Elvis fan. I always liked his voice and singing. Any of the fifties-sounding stuff--my dad had a %u201957 Chevy and we went to a lot of car shows when I was younger, and I guess I was around some of that and I thought that was cool. The sixties and seventies music I really didn%u2019t get into %u2018til probably the last eight to ten years; if it wasn%u2019t country, I never did listen to that much. My brother was a little bit older, and Devon was a drummer. He learned to play drums as we was young and he kind of got me, as I was learning guitar at the time, to learn to play rock stuff. So, Van Halen, at one time I learned all that. I studied his playing, and Poison, and Motley Crue and all that stuff. That%u2019s--still the eighties guitar sound is the greatest, and I learned that kind of genre before even Zeppelin or Clapton or Skynyrd. I just somehow missed that, %u2018til I started playing and teaching, and all these kids brought stuff in and I got to picking more out. Then all them people request %u201CSweet Home Alabama,%u201D you know, the standard stuff; then you learn them. Especially if these young %u2018uns is coming in there paying you to teach, and if they bring the CD I can figure the stuff out, and got more but--. And study for that rock stuff, I%u2019d do that. Then I got--later, as you dig into it, of course the James Taylor and the Clapton stuff to new Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler is a really great player. Eric Johnson, I think was a big influence on me, just that whole guitar electric sound, I really dug for a long time. But I traded my electric guitar in for a banjo, too, when I was about eighteen, so--. I still have a G&L (electric guitar) but, just to teach with, and if I ever go out and do some electric gig, I%u2019ll borrow Jaret%u2019s or Reggie%u2019s or something, but I%u2019ve never really bought an expensive electric guitar. Just for money and gig-wise, I%u2019ve really never needed one; I put it into the other acoustics. I really loved that stuff. I learned a lot of the Vince Gill type of thing for the country and Skaggs, Steve Wariner type of stuff. I never studied Chet%u2019s playing too much; I always liked it but just something about that style I never really learned. What else? The genres--. The Dead--I never was really--it was the Syndicate before I even knew some of their songs. When we%u2019d play some of that I%u2019d say, %u201CMan, that%u2019s a good song. Where did y%u2019all get that?%u201D They said, %u201CThat%u2019s the Dead, man.%u201D That%u2019s how green I was to that. Later, even after I quit that, the more I branched out from playing mandolin. I think I played the E.M.D. with them guys and I%u2019d never heard (David) Grisman%u2019s version of it before; Steve taught it to me. I just learned to jam over the chords and that little melody and then I got some of the Grisman records, and that kind of got me into that style stuff. That took me to another whole other experience on mandolin. Listening to (Sam) Bush, Grisman, and some of the spacegrass stuff with (Tony) Rice, all that kind of thing was a whole other deal just to study that instead of just the album band. Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs things, which I really take note to now--. I really like the Dawg music--Grisman%u2019s jazz type of acoustic stuff.
BG: What contemporary artists of your generation, or younger, are you interested in, or do you admire?
DA: For bluegrass or for%u2026
BG: %u2026Anything%u2026
DA: %u2026or for anything?
BG: Anything, yeah.
DA: It%u2019s a hard question. I really don%u2019t listen to radio. Kids will bring me in stuff to learn and then I%u2019ll figure it out, but I%u2019m really not big on any of it. I%u2019d say probably one of the better ones of the newer stuff I would like, just for his musical ability is probably John Mayer. I think he%u2019s got a good talent there. He%u2019s a really great player and he%u2019s got a different singing style, but I like some of his stuff. Dave Matthews type thing, I know that%u2019s getting older, though. I don%u2019t--I couldn%u2019t tell you a popular band that come out this year at all. She might, but I couldn%u2019t.
Yeah, but even popular country, I don%u2019t listen to it that much--today%u2019s stuff--. I like a lot of the older country things and just digging into bluegrass--I have so much going on that I couldn%u2019t tell you the popular things.
BG: I%u2019m the same way. People ask, especially I guess folks my age--I%u2019m the same age as you--I%u2019m thirty. So folks my age, and younger, my little sister, too--%u201CWhy are you listening to so much old music?%u201D All I can think of to say is there%u2019s a lot more old music than new music [laughed].
DA: Oh, yeah, and it%u2019s so much better, I think. Some of that stuff is pretty--. Not musical, I don%u2019t think, as the lyrics and the singer-songwriters%u2019 stuff from the seventies and eighties, and even if you get to the old-time stuff, from the old tunes that%u2019s been passed over and passed down from across the seeds. Anyway, that%u2019s more stuff, like I said, I want to learn more of that stuff than any of the newer stuff out.
TF: I guess in a way, though, that stuff has stood the test of time. Yeah, the newer stuff hasn%u2019t had a chance to do that yet, so maybe fifty years from now somebody will say, %u201CBoy, that was really--.%u201D
DA: And there was less of the recordings. You know, anybody can--nowadays, can whip a CD out in two days if they want to. Right there is probably better recording equipment than the Beatles recorded on. For that quick digital stuff, that%u2019s amazing. What else we got?
BG: What about teaching? You mentioned you have up to fifty students a week. That%u2019s quite a schedule. Do you teach at home?
DA: Yeah, I teach at home Monday through Wednesday, and Thursdays I%u2019m down at the School of the Arts in Gastonia. I teach just about anything with strings on it. I have a few electric students; they vary in and out. Everybody pretty well knows that I%u2019m--they want to come play bluegrass, or country, or flatpicking guitar, or banjo--three-finger banjo. I have a few fiddle students and they%u2019re all about evened out--ten to twelve apiece on mandolin, guitar and banjo. We go into theory with some and then we have basic beginners to really--chord structures to learning to read charts, to notation. That%u2019s just the way it varies from everybody. I%u2019ve always tried to teach what the student can learn. Being a teacher, I try to get on their level and find out the best way they can learn, besides teaching one way to everybody. I think that%u2019s how a lot of folks ought to be able to get across to people, even in the school system. They ought to do it that way instead of just one way. Learning theory, the ones that can understand it, and how to put that together for them, I%u2019ll show that to them if they want to learn that, or how--what age limit they%u2019re at, whether it%u2019s going to do them good in the future, if I think they%u2019ll stick with it. You%u2019ve got some that will--parents want them to learn, so they will drop them off for thirty minutes and, %u201CYou watch my young %u2018uns, I%u2019m going to go to the store,%u201D to somebody that really wants to come in and learn the instrument, to play in a band. I%u2019ve taught a lot of good students over the years--enjoyed it, and it%u2019s helped me; that%u2019s a practice for me that I wouldn%u2019t consider playing because a lot of stuff that I learn, I would never have taken the time to learn before, without I was having to figure it out to teach it to somebody. So, that%u2019s been good.
TF: I have a question related to that. The theory and things like that--have you had any formal music training?
DA: Just through school--high school--I played saxophone. I was soprano and alto sax, first chair when I was in tenth grade. All county stuff--I was pretty well interested in that at the time, but I never went to a formal college. I went to Gaston and had what music courses they had selected at the time down there. I was also traveling with the Syndicate while I was in college, so the two didn%u2019t mix with us playing as much as we was. I missed a lot, but I decided I wasn%u2019t going to go on anywhere else after that to study to do anything, because I felt like I was wasting my time in giving them money for schooling that I probably wasn%u2019t going to need because I wanted to be a professional musician. I was going to be playing out. This formal training--not other than that, but studying a lot on my own--. Through teaching and getting across to other people, I had to learn different ways in my head myself, in breaking down theory and doing a lot of studying to get it across to people that didn%u2019t know as much, just for learning. I did a lot of homework on my own for that, and (I%u2019m) still learning. An instrument is so much between this much frets that we can%u2019t grasp it all in sixty to eighty years of our lifetime, by no means. So if we all continue to learn every day, that%u2019s the whole ball game.
TF: Were your band teachers a pretty big help, though, in getting you started?
DA: Yeah, I had Mr. Rogers in school; he was very strict, always on--to be on time. I remember a thing--early was always on time and that always stuck in my head for any band practices that we had. It got me a lot to be more of a leader, I guess. I%u2019ve always pushed to be more of a leader of any band that I was in. I don%u2019t know why; I%u2019ve just got that drawing and pushing ability that--the drive that a lot of the rest have. I want to be right in the middle of everything. I want to be helping to form some of the music and arrangements, and whatever else, and he got me a lot in that. I guess I was one of the better ones in class; I got to direct a lot when he was out. I never was the drum major; I didn%u2019t want to do that because I wanted to play. I wanted to be a soloist, but he wanted me to at the time when I was a senior. I wanted to play instead of be that. The more I taught, the more I could pick up things from years in the past, and seen how important it was, which in school I didn%u2019t think it was.
TF: You mentioned arranging--I imagine that when you%u2019re talking about the Beach Boys and things like that--. That was a lot of the appeal with some of that was%u2026
DA: %u2026Yeah%u2026
TF: %u2026highly arranged sophistication.
DA: Yeah, Brian, he was just way out there on that.
TF: Yeah.
DA: I still appreciate it; I watched that big program they had on him a while back. I thought that was killer--Brian Wilson, it was good.
TF: Even Charlie was doing a lot of that, wasn%u2019t he? He was thinking about%u2026
DA: %u2026Waller?
TF: Yeah.
DA: No.
TF: No?
DA: Not that you%u2019d think. That really surprised me, too, but no. Me and Greg did a lot of that, as far as our stuff. Now in the early on, Charlie might have with Duffey and them, but Charlie was the good rhythm player and the good lead singer and I caught on in the last of the years, but he was just more riding along. Yeah, in the studio, I was with him about all the time.
BG: Despite hailing from just outside Cleveland County, you%u2019ve played with so many folks from this county. I wonder if you have any recommendations of people that we should talk to. We%u2019ve talked to a number of folks, but you may have some ideas%u2026
TF: %u2026It%u2019s easy to miss somebody%u2026
BG: %u2026of folks to interview.
DA: I think Lynch is a good one if you haven%u2019t talked to him
BG: Yeah, we just put him on the list but we haven%u2019t spoken to him.
DA: And from Cleveland, Eddie might be good to talk to. I%u2019m sure you%u2019ve got Bobby on there.
TF: And Dean.
DA: Yeah. I don%u2019t know, boys. Max--Max has done pretty well as far as a player. I can%u2019t think. I%u2019ve ( ) a lot of them.
TF: It%u2019s hard, too, for you not to know who all is on our list, so sometime we%u2019ll send you the list and you can just look over it and%u2026
DA: OK. Yeah, I%u2019m thinking bluegrass players, too.
TF: Yeah, yeah, sure.
DA: You said you were meeting with Bryon and some of them boys, so%u2026
TF: %u2026Yeah%u2026
DA: %u2026that%u2019s a good thing, as far as the early on guys.
TF: I think the interesting thing about Bryon, besides his background, is the areas that he%u2019s taken the music to and that the electric banjo, and yet it%u2019s rooted right here in%u2026
DA: %u2026Yeah%u2026
TF: %u2026the Earl Scruggs%u2026
DA: %u2026And Bryon, he%u2019s such of a--you%u2019ll hear nobody else really play like Bryon. People in bluegrass, they%u2019ll listen to a lot of stuff and hear Scott Vestal and Bela (Fleck) play and they%u2019ll learn to play like that, and Bryon%u2019s really never studied either one; he plays like Bryon.
You%u2019ve got to hand it to him on that, %u2018cause you won%u2019t hear nobody copy the way he plays. Can you?
TF: No.
DA: And he plays guitar the same way.
TF: Yeah.
DA: [Laughed] TF: I%u2019ve not heard him play much guitar, I don%u2019t think.
DA: He plays it like that. It%u2019s pretty cool. He%u2019s a good musician. There%u2019s a lot in the area and in this county, or the tri-counties around, there%u2019s been such good music that come out of these parts. I guess, somebody that you might talk to--. Is that Cleveland County? I believe it is. He lives out past O%u2019Yummy%u2019s on 182--Fallston. He%u2019s %u2018ole Yates Green.
TF: That%u2019s kind of what I had in my mind when I was asking you about some of the people, %u2018cause I remember going to a%u2026
DA: %u2026Yates played with us last Sunday night, or Saturday night. We were playing at a church up there and I called him%u2026
TF: %u2026He%u2019s been on our list%u2026
BG: %u2026Yeah, he%u2019s on there%u2026
TF: %u2026but I don%u2019t know--I%u2019ve run into Yates but I don%u2019t know him well. Seems like I remember him coming to that time that you played, and Bobby and Dean, all over at the Cherryville Country Club? Do you remember that?
DA: Yeah.
TF: You were pretty young then.
DA: Yeah.
TF: Wasn%u2019t Yates there that night?
DA: I think so. I think we called him to come out. Yates is doing pretty good right now; he%u2019s had a battle with cancer the last several years, but I think it%u2019s been in remission the last two. He got up and sung with us at church the other night. Yates, you know, was part of the Blue Grass Boys for a while and (he%u2019s) written a lot of good songs. He could probably give you a lot of older history.
TF: Is he from here originally?
DA: I%u2019m not sure. I think.
TF: Yeah, as far as I know, he is.
DA: What else? Think of any more good questions?
BG: We%u2019ve covered a lot.
TF: Yeah, I%u2019m sure we%u2019ve probably taken up an hour and a half or two hours.
BG: An hour and ten minutes, and then there was Wendy%u2019s and all that [laughed]. The last question I usually like to ask is just if there are any questions that we didn%u2019t ask, and we should have asked, or if there is anything that either one of you want to add?
DA: That%u2019s what we were trying to think of here, I--. I don%u2019t know, you?
BJ: I can%u2019t think of anything.
DA: To add, I believe it%u2019s been very good for me to grow up in the area. If I had been somewhere else, I might not have been the man I am today. So I%u2019m glad I was from the area, and like you said, I was--always been a part of the--right here in Cleveland County, growing up and playing, and being around so many good musicians and players that helped influence me a lot. From good to bad, it%u2019s always if you look at it as a learning experience you%u2019ll get something out of it, other than just looking for a jam to pass time. That%u2019s what I%u2019ve always tried to do. There%u2019s been a lot of good players--places to play, like Max%u2019s place; Leatherwood%u2019s was a big thing to have. Something I never got to--the Cliffside festival up here--I never got to go to that, but--. What was the name of it?
TF: The [pause]--not the Snuffy Jenkins?...
DA: Yeah, the Snuffy thing. I mean, that was right there, you know?
TF: Explain a little about Max%u2019s and the bomb shelter. You%u2019ve mentioned that, but to somebody that doesn%u2019t know what that was.
DA: Max McKee%u2019s place?
TF: Oh, Max McKee%u2019s place, OK. Well, the bomb shelter was--who ran that?
DA: The bomb shelter%u2019s in Cherryville, and it%u2019s kind of right behind the high school. Jack Bingham owns that, and his family down through the years just had a place. In the wintertime, they go in the bomb shelter and in the summertime, he%u2019s got a cabin and a nice place down through the woods. A lot of players have met down there. It%u2019s been a real good jam session. They actually started it playing for their self. Stan Carpenter played; Jack Bingham; Click Dellinger played with them. I think he was one of the Shakers at one time. It was right there in the back yard for me. Like I say, a lot of people went over there to practice and to play and have big jams. It was a social that was every Wednesday.
TF: I used to hear everybody talk about that--Steve Kiser and%u2026
DA: %u2026Yeah, several of them would go over there, and it was a good gathering, a good learning experience for me when I was younger. That was good. What are we missing?
TF: Have you played at Max%u2019s?
DA: Yeah. I haven%u2019t in years, but early on, I think with the Straight and Narrow Band--played there. I did some gospel stuff there later on. I think we throwed together something and opened up for Raymond Fairchild one time.
TF: I was going to ask you if you did.
DA: We played with Max and them there. It was just a good place to go out and support because he would have the music around. Max kind of jumped in and did the--he didn%u2019t really do the imitation because he%u2019s just a character in his self. I heard a lot of people say he imitated a lot and do what Hubert Davis done with PeeWee. You know, PeeWee%u2019s brother, Hubert?
TF: Um-hmm.
DA: It was that kind of crazy way, which Hubert played for Monroe, too. But, Max is a good player to get some of the foolishness out of his system and play. He knows what he%u2019s doing; he%u2019s a real big showman and it%u2019s really done good for him. He has the knowledge of the instrument, too. Of course, you%u2019re a good player, too, Tommy.
TF: I appreciate that. I%u2019m not anywhere near the class of you guys that play and take it real seriously, but I enjoy it.
DA: That%u2019s the best thing of it, that I always wanted to get into music had led me through, yeah, well, music and the Lord have been the two best friends I%u2019ve ever had. I had a lot of family problems when I was at that time, I guess, that turned me into a musician. That%u2019s what I jumped to feed to. My parents split up when I was about fourteen, fifteen years old, and I just basically did that. I didn%u2019t play any other sports. I%u2019ve kept a good relationship with everybody in my family, my father and mother, too. Music is what I turned to at that time. It%u2019s a humbling experience to play, and just to get into a guitar or a song and learning. It%u2019s a good pastime and that%u2019s what it was kind of--was for. You know, all the way back to David in the Bible playing his harp. I don%u2019t know how many they assigned there at the temple at that time, but it was an uplifting thing--music. That%u2019s what the Lord put it on earth for.
BG: I think that%u2019s a great way to end [laughed]. Well said.
TF: Yes.
BEGINNING OF SECOND TRACK
TF: You want to talk about dancing a little bit%u2014traditional.
DA: My mom taught clogging.
TF: Yeah.
DA: And I jumped into that, you know%u2014eleven or twelve years old. Me and my brother both did. That was another thing with getting around the old-time bluegrass music. We%u2019d go everywhere to festivals and clog. Somewhere along that time, we clogged at the state fair, and at the age limit%u2014I forget what it was, but I was a state champion clogger at one time down there in Raleigh. I used to love that, the old square dancing and stuff. We didn%u2019t do%u2014old, you know%u2014we did just more mountain clogging and the flatfoot type of stuff. But as far as that kind of dancing, I enjoyed that%u2014square dancing, I guess, more than anything.
TF: Was that like old Southern square and round dancing? Was it the club type square dancing where, you know, it%u2019s kind of%u2014you know what I%u2019m%u2014called %u201Cclub?%u201D
BJ: When you have a caller?
DA: Yeah.
TF: Well, you have a caller, but also, now there%u2019s a lot of the clubs that have the%u2014they dress a lot for it, and when I was coming along there was square dancing that was done by a lot of people at dances, but they really didn%u2019t%u2014it was just ordinary people who went out and did it.
DA: Yeah. Well, we had a clogging team there. You know, everybody that she taught had different classes, and for the better ones%u2014but yeah, we did the white pants and little ties and the girls had the fluffy dresses and all that stuff.
TF: Yeah, you were with a team%u2026
DA: %u2026Yeah, the team clogs, yeah. Yeah, that%u2019s what we were always involved in. You didn%u2019t picture that, did you?
TF: [Laughed].
DA: Me doing that as well%u2014I%u2019ve been around all types of stuff, and I%u2019ve been fortunate.
TF: Do you see much when you play? Over the years when you played here, did%u2014do you see much breaking out into solo dancing and that sort of thing, kind of the old-time stuff?
DA: Not much.
DA: As far as in bands, or just people?
TF: Oh, just people.
DA: Yeah, not a whole lot. Every now and then you%u2019ll get some folks that will get out there and do it. For the style they do it%u2014that we play, unless it%u2019s just called for that, it%u2019s not a whole lot. And, it%u2019s kind of aggravating to the band too, especially somebody that really don%u2019t know how to keep time. It kind of throws you in the rough on that, but I love to play for them.
Me and Eddie used to go to Sim%u2019s Barbecue a lot and play for the square dances, but that puts you in a whole different mind-set of what you want to play, though.
TF: Yeah.
DA: That%u2019s cool to have a good fiddler, or play a lot of the square dance%u2014old fiddle tunes, you know. You%u2019re sure not going to cut a slow ballad during that time, so getting in that mind-set, I love it.
TF: Yeah, we were noticing that some of the pictures Dan showed us of bands, and a lot of them had no dancing.
BG: Yeah, %u201CNo Dancing%u201D signs.
TF: The bluegrass, yeah--.
BG: That was back in the fifties, a lot of those pictures he showed us%u2014and forties, some of them.
DA: Yeah, Charlie used to say at a lot of them festivals about drummers and cloggers, %u201CThey used to carry some with them, but they shot them at the last bluegrass festival they was at.%u201D
But dancing is a good another thing for that old style that people need to pass on and do. I think a lot of the newer stuff, you know, but the contest people might not want to hear, but that ole-time thing, that%u2019s a good style. That%u2019s what my mom taught, you know%u2026
TF: %u2026Yeah%u2026
DA: %u2026was the old type clogging.
TF: When you go up around Mt. Airy, like when%u2014where I%u2019ve seen the Bowmans play, like at the Tommy Jarrell Festival%u2014they just practically invite and expect the dancers to come up on the stage with them.
DA: Yeah.
TF: And it happens.
DA: And they thrash.
TF: Yeah.
DA: It%u2019s right in there with them, you know. That%u2019s the thing about old-time music, I think, that was converted a lot, is that everybody%u2019s taking a break at one time. It%u2019s different for somebody that hadn%u2019t even jumped into that before, %u2018cause everybody is just %u201Cgettin%u2019 it [laughed].%u201D
TF: Well, that%u2019s good we added that.
BG: Thank you both.
END OF INTERVIEW
Transcriber: Mike Hamrick
Date: April 16th, 2009